Sermon Central
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From Satan’s Slave To God’s Servant: Series
Contributed by James Lee on Nov 28, 2017 (message contributor)
Summary: I would like to thank Pastor Jerry Shirley for sharing this series on Acts. It has been a blessing as well as a great help. I have used these for our church, as I spend my days caring for my dying father.
The slave girl was liberated by the power of Jesus Christ and no longer belongs to Satan! You would think that would make the whole town happy.
But this made her masters so angry that they hauled Paul and Silas in front of the authorities and made some lame excuses as to the reason they were so upset.
“They’re disrupting our city, violating our customs, they’re troublemakers!”
If you pay any attention to the news you’ll see that today, Christians are being portrayed as troublemakers. But the real troublemakers are not the soul-winners who are trying to free people from sin. The real troublemakers are those who are trying to enslave people in sin.
Those who have a vested interest in keeping people enslaved are the real troublemakers. Those who profit from keeping our minds in the gutter, like the gambling crowd who need people to be addicted, in order for them to profit.
The alcohol industry, pornography, drug industry survive on keeping you in bondage to their product. Those doctors who write unnecessary prescriptions for pain meds are nothing more than drug dealers who keep you coming back for more and more. Even the government can be a big player in this game [explain].
Those who are keeping the racial tension alive in America right now. Those who is forcing political decisions like same sex marriage. Those who stand to gain the most from keeping America divided are destroying our nation and enslaving her people…so why do they do it?
I will give you several one word answers. Profit. Power. Prestige. Position.
Look at verse 19 “When her owners realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities.”
They made up something they could pin on them, but this slave girl was saved. She was forever changed. She wouldn’t continue in her old ways even if it did pay well!
She was living [2Co 5:17 NKJV] “Therefore, if anyone [is] in Christ, [he is] a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things [Not some things] have become new.”[added]
Churches can be held in slavery too. Satan fills their minds with garbage and when a pastor stands on the Word of God, they begin to murmur and gripe until the pastor is brought up on false charges and asked to leave, only because the church has allowed Satan to gain access to the body.
I’ll tell you this much and do what you will with it BUT I wouldn’t give you a plug nickel for a salvation that doesn’t change a person’s life.
If your salvation can’t get that fridge full of booze or cabinet full of liquor out of the house and into the trash can, I wouldn’t trust it to get you to heaven.
If your salvation is not powerful enough to get you out of your pill bottle or your little plastic bag then it is not powerful enough to save you for all eternity!
If salvation can’t get your tithe out of your wallet and into the offering plate I wonder if it can get you through the gates of glory.